First All-Union Census of the Soviet Union

The First All Union Census of the Soviet Union took place in December 1926. It was an important tool in the state-building of the USSR, provided the government with important ethnographic information, and helped in the transformation from Imperial Russian society to Soviet society. The decisions made by ethnographers in determining the ethnicity (narodnost) of individuals, whether in the Asiatic or European parts of the former Russian Empire, through the drawing up of the "List of Ethnicities of the USSR", and how borders were drawn in mixed areas had a significant influence on Soviet policies. Ethnographers, statisticians, and linguists were drawing up questionnaires and list of ethnicities for the census. However, they also had the more ambitious goal of deliberately transforming their identities according to the principles of Marxism-Leninism. As Anastas Mikoyan put it, the Soviet Union was "creating and organising new nations"^[1]

Previous censuses

The First All Union Census of the Soviet Union followed two partial censuses carried out by the Bolsheviks following their seizure of power in Russia. The first, the general census of 1920, took place during the Civil War and the Soviet-Polish War. It was thus unable to deal with the Crimea, much of Transcaucasia, Ukraine, Belarus, Far Eastern, Siberian, and Central Asian parts of the Soviet Union as well as with its Far Northern parts. Yet it is worth to note that there was only 15,000,000 population increase between 1920 and 1926 constituting in some 131,304,931 people according to the TIME magazine while is still undisclosed in Russian history.^[2] The 1923 Census was restricted to cities. Prior to the Russian Revolution, the only Russian Empire Census was done in 1897.

Methodology

By classifying the population in terms of narodnosti (nationalities)—as opposed to tribe or clan—along with policies which gave these nations land, resources, and rights, experts and local elites were encouraged to interfere with the information collecting. Coercion and deception were used to manipulate the census information on nationality to gain more resources and land, as representatives of different groups tried to swell their groups numbers, or present them as a compact mass, the better to gain territorial rights. As often as not the new census aggravated territorial disputes rather than solving them.

List of ethnicities

This list, called Programmy i posobiya po razrabotke Vsesoyuznoy perepisi naseleniya 1926 goda, vol. 7, Perechen i slovar narodnostey, Moscow 1927, was developed by the Central Statistical Administration of the USSR.^[3]

Population by republics

• Russia / RSFSR - 100 891 244 ( urban 17 442 655 )
• Ukraine / Ukrainian SSR - 29 018 187 ( urban 5 373 553 )
• Kazakhstan / Kazakh SSR - 6 503 006 ( urban 539 249 )
• Uzbekistan / Uzbek SSR - 5 272 801 ( urban 1 102 218 )
• Belarus / Belarus SSR - 4 983 240 ( urban 847 830 )
• Georgia (country) / Georgian SSR - 2 666 494 ( urban 594 221 )
• Azerbaijan / Azeri SSR - 2 314 571 ( urban 649 557 )
• Turkmenistan / Turkmen SSR - 1 000 914 ( urban 136 982 )
• Kyrgyzstan / Kyrgyz SSR - 993 004 ( urban 121 080 )
• Armenia / Armenian SSR - 880 464 ( urban 167 098 )
• Tajikistan / Tajik SSR - 827 200
• Transnistria / Moldavian ASSR - 572 114
• Total USSR - 147 027 915 ( urban 26 314 114 )

References